Short stories, all with pictures

Main menu

Category Archives: Education

Post navigation

Back in Hanoi, cold, damp , grey clouds, smog, both regretting the impromptu swim in the bay , we walk to the ethnology museum, mooch around for a while. We feel like sleeping for a week. We cut short the cultural tour and head back to the hotel via Hoan Kiem lake and wander along the lake side. I’can’t remember seeing so many film cameras in my life – certainly not since I was 20 or so; nikons, a couple […]

If you believe the hype of the tour agents in Hanoi, the web and the backpackers you will meet beforehand, the fishing villages are a highlight of the “Halong Bay experience”, where you can see first hand the indigenous population and get up close to the real Vietnam. To be fair they do look good on the brochures; rickety rafts supporting houses (they would be called sheds back home), kids showing a rare talent for seamanship, all surrounded by the […]

We met Long in Pho Shop #10 close to St Joseph’s Church in Hanoi. Pho Shop #10 has a few tables seating eight at a time, so you find an empty space and squeeze in. The menu is Pho Bo (beef pho) with different cuts of beef. Brisket is the most expensive option at 15,000 dong for a bowl (that’s about $0.75). After giving your order you wait a few minutes and then a steaming bowl of unctuous broth and […]